Fermilab Director Mike Witherell announced Wednesday that Jim Strait of
Fermilab's Technical Division
will become the next Particle Physics Division head. Strait, who has
been leading the U.S. Large Hadron Collider project for the last few years,
was introduced as the new division head to PPD employees assembled in Ramsey
Auditorium.

"Jim impressed everybody involved with his work on the U.S. LHC," said
Witherell. "When the committee recommended him, I enthusiastically agreed.
We congratulate Jim on his record at LHC and welcome him to his new position."

"I'm flattered and honored to be given this opportunity," said Strait.
"I'm looking forward to working with all of you and doing the best possible
science for Fermilab and for the world." Strait came to Fermilab almost 20
years ago, and worked on SSC and CDF projects before becoming head of US LHC.

Strait will replace outgoing division head John Cooper. Cooper's
leadership in improving safety was praised by Witherell, who called
him a great example for new division heads. Cooper, who served as head
of PPD for eight years, thanked all PPD employees for their efforts, and
wished the division and Strait the best in the years ahead.

May 3-May 5
- Operations established one store during this 48-hour period, which
added to the existing store provided approximately 33 hours and 57
minutes of luminosity to the experiments.
- A clogged heat exchanger caused a Linac RF station to trip and hold
off all beam.
- A Main Injector power supply loop problem cut off stacking

FYI: AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News, May 5, 2004:Making the Case for Physical Sciences Funding
Two recent developments in Washington highlight the increased attention that is being given to the funding of physical sciences research by the federal government. Both efforts stressed the importance of physical science to the nation's energy security and economic growth.

In an unprecedented move, 55 senators signed a letter to Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Ranking Member Harry Reid (D-NV), urging them to increase the budget for the Department of Energy's Office of Science by 10% over that requested by the Bush Administration. With this letter, more than half of the Senate is now on record for substantially higher funding for the Office of Science. This demonstration of support for the Office of Science, which many lament is often lost within the larger DOE structure, is a significant turnaround for this office. A year ago, a similar letter had 39 signatories. Active constituent interest and diligent senatorial staff work was important in increasing the number of senators signing this letter. The American Physical Society played a very active role in this effort.
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Run II CDF Top Goes Public!

The distribution of the missing energy for part of
the sample. The points represent the data, and the
histograms show the expected Standard Model signal and
background distributions. (Click on image for larger version.)

Does the unusually large mass of the top quark cause it to
play a special role in our universe? We think so! Since
the first observation of the top quark in 1994, we have had
an extensive program to explore top quark properties and to
understand the deeper meaning. CDF has taken a new step in
that direction in Run II: a measurement of the top production

Reda Tafirout fromUniversity of Toronto.

rate using events with two leptons in the final state has
now been submitted for
publication-- the first paper on top physics from Run II
of the Tevatron.

During Run I an initial, lower-statistics measurement of top
"dilepton" production showed general agreement with the

Pierre Savard fromUniversity of Toronto.

Standard Model. However, some of the events exhibited
peculiar properties, such as unusually large missing energy
compared to what was expected, a possible sign of new or
unknown physics processes entering the data sample. This
has made top dilepton events particularly interesting to
study with the higher statistics of Run II.

The distribution in the plane of missing
transverse energy vs. the angle between the missing energy
and the nearest lepton or jet. (Click on image for larger version.)

In these data, we identify two leptons with large transverse
momenta that signal the decay of the two W bosons, produced
in the decay of top and anti-top quark pairs. Two
complementary analyses were combined to improve the
statistical error, yielding a measurement of
7.0+2.4-2.1(stat)+1.6-1.1(syst)+\-0.4(lum) pb, in good
agreement with the theory prediction. This measurement
establishes a foundation for detailed comparisons of the
properties of these events to the Standard Model as Run II
continues.

Fermilab Picnic and Cougar Game
The Fermilab Picnic and Cougar game will be on July 10.
The deadline to purchase tickets is May 28. The picnic will
begin at 4:00 PM under the Fermilab tent at the Kane County
Cougar Stadium and run until 6:00 p.m. The game with reserved
seating begins at 6:00 p.m. The cost for the whole event is only
$12.00 per person, which includes your reserved game ticket and
all-you-can-eat buffet.
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